EXCELLENT LONG WEEKEND

A very wet and windy journey led us to the hotel set in a quiet area of Sheffield. A lively greeting welcomed us with music playing and a welcome glass of something cool and alcoholic. We were directed to our well furnished suit on the ground floor where there was a very lovely view over the grounds and ornamental lake. A pre dinner drink was taken in the bar area before moving to the plain but adequate dining/breakfast room. The menu was quite good but did not change over the three days. Waiters and waitresses were full of Yorkshire charm and very attentive. Breakfast was excellent with a range of freshly cooked fare. On the Saturday evening there was a large function so we ate in the Laura Ashley tea rooms. The room was very quiet and comfortable. Car parking was easy and close to the front door.

Short stay

A pleasant hotel in a lovely location in the outskirts of Sheffield. We had a large comfortable room with a nice bathroom,although there were a few minor maintenance issues. The food at dinner was great but breakfast was all from a buffet which means fried eggs are almost always hard. Service in the dining room was generally good but our desert order got lost on the first night. Some delay at checkout not sure if due to the computer system of the receptionist's inability to use it.. Overall a very pleasant stay in spite of very wet weather.

An experience

Rather a disappointing 2 day visit. Our room was unheated. A promised maintenance visit didn,t happen. After further request, we were moved at 8.30pm to another room. Here it was impossible to turn the hot air heating off. The fan was on all night. The restaurant service was very and a half hours for our dinner. The food was very , quantity and presentation. Breakfast was excellent. Communication among reception staff was limited
The hotel was very clean with comfortable lounge areas. Bar and restaurant staff were very pleasant. Overall we found it difficult to visit the centre of Sheffield. Difficult to park and no buses nearby.

Dissapointing

This was a birthday gift and we had to pay an extra 80 to include the children. There was a wedding party whilst we were at the hotel and the disco was underneath our room which meant that we couldn't get to sleep until after midnight. We were disappointed that we couldn't access the bar due to the wedding and were not told prior to booking that this private event was on. The pool was nice but the stairs leading down to the spa/pool were filthy. There were children in the pool who had clearly forgotten their swimwear and were swimming in their underwear.

The restaurant was lovely and the young staff friendly and polite.

The following morning the breakfast service was a fiasco, there were no clean tables set out and no hot food/cups. They did bring out breakfast items eventually but in dribs and drabs. The coffee machine overflowed onto the floor and the glasses for juice were hot out of the dishwasher. The wedding party guests dominated the few staff that were trying their best to manage the service. I asked the waiter for coffee cups to which he rubbed his sweaty face with his hands and disappeared into the to return without any cups.

The jacuzzi didn't work on the second day unfortunately.

Not the luxury spa weekend I imagined,

Maybe they forgot they're supposed to be 4*.

My partner and I arrived, excited to celebrate another birthday with an overnight Dinner B&B deal.

From the resplendent hotel picture that accompanied our supplementary online search we were in for a 4 star treat, housed in such a magnificent building we were eager to sample a little bit of luxury, if only for 24 hours. Expectations were high, but in reality, the hotel wasn t the Palace of Versailles we had anticipated, though no blame can be placed on offpeakluxury for our on-line misdirection. Bringing out the stoic Brit from within, we were still determined to enjoy our stay, but the hotel experience never managed to live up to our revised ideals!

As we sat down to drink our complementary welcome Presecco, we sat looking at the congealed lunch remains and dirty crockery at a nearby table which wasn t cleared away for half an hour or so, I wondered if they thought someone else had done it? Maybe they forgot.

Getting ready for our evening required a cooling cleansing shower as our room had no air conditioning to combat the stifling mid-summer heat and a window that opened 5 inches at best. However there were no toiletries to be found in our bathroom, I wondered if they d been distracted? Maybe they forgot.

Later, sitting enjoying our pre meal drink, I began to feel hungry, would anyone notice me tucking into the chip currently secreted under our table. I wondered if someone should have told us about this appetising hors d oveures? Maybe they forgot. Using the reception/bar loos, the gents had no toiletries, or even an empty soap dish or dispenser, I wondered how this could be? Maybe they forgot. The ladies had toothpaste or was it soap squeezed across the sink surrounds, toilet one had a plastic bag in the bowl, toilet two was too disgustingly unclean to use, toilet three saved the walk back to the room, I wondered if someone should have checked? Maybe they forgot.

At dinner, we were shown to our Formica topped table, I wondered if there should have been a crisp white table cloth or even a place mat to hide the ingrained wine stains? Maybe they forgot. Why was there no salt and pepper preplaced on the table? Maybe they forgot. We ordered our complementary bottle of house white, which was beautifully presented on a bed of cubed ice within a gleaming silver ice bucket and stand, I declined the offer for our waitress to pour and proceeded to help ourselves to 2 tepid glasses, I wondered if they knew that white wine was supposed to be taken from a chilled cabinet? Maybe they forgot. Casting our eyes around the brightly lit dining room, we suddenly realised why Carrie Ann (Poltergeist) was eventually told not to go to the light, she d have been covered in cobwebs. I wondered why someone hadn t cleaned. Maybe they forgot.

Breakfast was a pleasant surprise, there weren t crisp white table cloths, however there were place mats. Someone had remembered. Why though was there still no salt and pepper on the table? Maybe they forgot.

Overnight stay

A lovely hotel. Staff friendly and welcoming. A wonderful evening meal with a free bottle of wine. Never had a bad experience in a Mercure hotel.
We did struggle to find the hotel, but when checking out a very helpful receptionist printed off a description of how to get to the M1.

Weekened breakl

Generally the hotel is looking tired. Whilst mostly our trip was fine the hotel is a rabbit warren and we had a long walk to our room. Reception staff we did not find welcoming The worst thing was that both nights of our stay the restaurant was given over to private parties. We did not know about this beforehand so might have chosen elsewhere.
The substitute room was really a private function room and not set up for guest dining. Some food arrived lukewarm and some took a while. My espresso had been on a 100 yard route march. Luckily the staff in the room were excellent and tried very hard to make up for the shortcomings. Well done Chloe, Jamie and Caroline